2012 in Review ~ The first year as a published author and a note to aspiring authors:

Well, friends, it’s been a heck of a first year. And I thought I’d share my journey of this year by visiting what led up
to it.

Summer of 2009, I walked away from a
sales and marketing career because I’d wasted entirely too much of my life.
Yes, I’d had six-figure salary years, but I’d also missed weddings, funerals,
and weekend jaunts away with the family. Happily, I’ll tell you I never missed
a school play or football game, but often, I had to run right back to work
instead of getting ice cream afterward. Work, in my mind, had become a
four-letter word, and since I spent more than a third of my life there, I
decided I needed to get back to a career that was fun, something I wanted to
do, and something that I felt benefited others in the process.

So I asked myself a question: If you could do anything you wanted, what
would you do?

Well that’s a silly question, I said to myself. Read,
of course. Okay…I then thought, What else? Remember all those short stories you wrote in high school? Remember
that one in college? Remember how you wanted to be an author and literary
agent, and your friends said if you didn’t live in New York you’d never make
it?

Six months later…December 2009, (It took
me that long to believe I had it in me, and I was enjoying not working for the
first time in thirty years, relishing in the extra time with my twelve and
seventeen-year-old sons) I sat down and started penning a story. Two months
later, I had a 120k-word novel, which I shared with my best friend and cousin,
swearing them to secrecy (Nope! Hubby didn’t know. In fact, hubby didn’t hear I
wrote a novel until I had a contract almost two years later) My readers loved my
story, but made some recommendations, and I searched high and low for
suggestions on how to edit it, to make sure it was publishable. Yes, I was a
reader, but I’d never dissected a novel. So that’s what I did; I read! With
highlighters, paying attention to the mechanics of writing, not just the story.
Now I had a novel, so the fun part would begin. Right…

Fall of 2010, I started querying my
novel. Sigh! If you’ve never done this, let me tell you, you are in for a
treat. Everything is fine until you meet the first agent willing to tell you
the truth. Ignore the nice emails and sweet form letters, and pay attention to
the honest one. Whether she’s right or wrong, she’s a reader, so be willing to
listen.

So, back to the drawing board I went.
Still, nothing, nothing, nothing.

And then, through my reading,
studying, and stalking of agents on Twitter, I realized it wasn’t my novel; it
was my query letter. Honestly, I don’t thing agents care who you are, where you
come from, or what you’ve done. THEY ARE READERS! Remember that. They want you
to “WOW” them. And if you “wow” them, you have a chance at getting a request
for full.

Well, my final query letter must have
done the trick because all of the sudden I had multiple requests from agents
and publishers. But then I had a very good friend in the publishing business
who helped me understand all that contract stuff. Turns out, I didn’t want to
wait eighteen months for my novel to see the light of day. Oh, I forgot to
mention…while I was querying, I wrote four more novels. So…I was ready,
chomping at the bit, so to say.

While I was deciding which publishing
route to take, I met an author on Twitter who was starting her own publishing
company, and she requested to see my full manuscript, even though she wasn’t
taking submissions at that time. She immediately offered me a contract in
August 2011, agreeing to publish my first novel by Christmas 2011. And she did.
She Belongs to Me hit the proverbial
bookshelf 12/23/2011. Since then, she’s published three more of my novels and a
short story. In its first year, 5 Prince Publishing has published 24 books. I’m
proud to be on the ground floor with Bernadette Marie.

Since publishing with 5 Prince
Publishing, exactly one year ago, She
Belongs to Me has been on the bestseller list three times, right alongside
such great authors as Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts. My second novel Land of the Noonday Sun also made it
onto the romantic-suspense bestseller list. And novels three and four just
released, so my hope is that they too will see the bestseller list.

Thank you, friends, for an awesome
first year. It is because of all of your support that I was able to accomplish
what I did in 2012. I have exciting things in the works, which I can’t wait to
share with you, so please keep checking back.

Hopefully my journey will give aspiring
authors some ideas and encouragement to continue, but here are just a few extra
points. Though they may seem common, they’re worth repeating, I think.

ØIf you want to be an author, write.
All the time! Keep a journal, never let a thought pass, and never be afraid to
start over. But at the same time, never trash what you’ve written. That’s why
we have files. Blogs are great, but you have to keep them up. Be prepared to
post at least two to three times a month.

ØRead! Read everything you can about
writing. Read everything in your genre. Read everything about writing a query
letter and synopsis, even if you plan to self-pub. A query hook is no different
from a book blurb; its purpose is to hook the reader.

ØAnd yes, you should always query,
even if you have every intention on self-publishing. What better advice can you
get than from an agent whose job is to find a buyer for your book? After all,
your final goal is to sell your book, right?

ØNever be afraid to listen to advice.
That doesn’t mean you have to accept it, but be willing to listen with an open
mind.

A little about what I write:

A writer of modern-day
fairytales, my stories overflow with romance, mystery, suspense, and of course,
tragedy. After all, what would a fairytale be without a tragic event setting
the stage? All of my novels are sensual, but not erotic, gripping but not graphic
and will make you cry, laugh, love, and hope.

When Alexandra’s choices dissolve into Entangled Dreams, pushing
her down a dark and dismal path, she must trust her instincts to escape danger,
but be able to surrender all to find her happily ever after. Knowing how to
decipher the difference, will be her toughest challenge.

Very nice and I'm so proud to have been a part of it! (and so funny...I remember you telling me on the phone, "my husband doesn't know I wrote a book.") I think you did him (and yourself and me) proud!

Awww...thank you, Bernadette. We've come a long way in a year, huh? You especially.

Yes, I didn't tell him until after I had the contract in my hands. And I did it at a coffee shop and teared up. I think he thought I was leaving him at first. Funny...same thing happened in "She Belongs to Me". LOL!

Good advice. I'm in the middle of rewriting my query for the fourth time. I've almost written my second book while doing the waiting game. It's almost daunting, but nice to know that almost everybody who does get published goes through this stuff.

It is daunting, Chris. And believe me, I've talked many of my aspiring author friends off the proverbial ledge. I've gotten pretty good at query letters now. In fact, I write them for hundreds of authors. If you want to use the email at the top right and send me what you have, I'll be glad to take a peek. Sometimes it just need "oomph!"

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